The Annual Weber Joust

The format for the 2010 PartyCasino.com Weber Cup has been altered slightly with the teams reduced from five to four players but essentially it is the same series of baker, singles and doubles matches to determine the

Defending Champions Europe

destination of most prestigious trophy in team bowling.
One change is that in some of the singles games, including potentially, the final two games of the tournament, the players are selected by the opposition’s skipper!
“I suspect that there will be some funny situations especially now that the opposite side’s captain will get to pick some of the other team’s players for matches.
“Also, with only four players, folk are getting more lane time which should boost up the standard of the games even more with people having chance to get even more comfortable on the lanes than before.”
Palermaa is confident that following a win (his first in the competition) in 2009, back-to-back victories will be achievable.
“Having bowled the Weber Cup twice before and never won and especially the way we lost the year before, it was quite rewarding being able to turn the 1-3 deficit to commanding 17-11 win.
“Looking ahead to this year’s event, I actually feel like I’m throwing the ball really good at the moment. I had a little time off in the summer and after that I felt good and I’m still feeling good, so bring it on.
“Major Mika, the MOOSE, is probably the most accurate bowler ever to come from Europe; when he feels comfortable there’s no way beating him. And over the last few months he’s been pretty impressive.
“Dominic Barrett has been a rising star for the last few seasons and he has now made it through as a proper star. He has been quite dominant in European circles and definitely somebody you want to have in your team.
“Rodge (Paul Moor) had a season or two with less success than what he’s used to years before, but it looks like he’s getting closer to the old Paul again. Fortunately for us, that lane has always been pretty good for him, and he did clinch the Weber Cup for us last year.
“When you add to that trio me, when I feel I’m bowling good, then the Yanks are really up for a match and definitely need to bring their A game!”
Team Europe will most likely start as betting favourites to retain their title but the America foursome of Mack, Barnes, Jones and Weber will certainly have something to say about that.
The fifth member of the European team though, may well be the crowd and it is something for Palermaa that makes the Weber Cup such a compelling event.
“The crowd being there on both sides of the lane cheering us is just something you don’t get to feel anywhere else. This is the way a bowler such as me would want to bowl every time I bowl a tournament.
“As said before Weber Cup gives us a chance to loosen up and just enjoy our times on the lane and definitely it’s really high up there where events come,” added Palermaa. Luke Riches, Matchroom Sport

Bob Johnson has received more national writing awards than any other bowling writer — close to 70 over the course of his 40-year career. He began at age 16 as a staff writer and then assistant editor for the weekly Pacific Bowler newspaper in his native California, and within three years was writing feature stories for Bowlers Journal. He has written for the magazine ever since, except for a five-year span when he was hired as the founding editor of another magazine. He moved to Chicago in 2000 and spent 13 years in the Windy City, including five as Bowlers Journal’s Editor. In 1975, Johnson received the Robert E. Kennedy Award as California’s top undergraduate high school journalist. Five years earlier, on the lanes, he had shared the Bantam Division Doubles championship in the Orange County Junior Bowling Association Championships. Today, he continues to work full-time for Bowlers Journal as its Senior Editor, to write his popular “Strikes Me” column, and to edit Luby Publishing Inc.’s weekly business-to-business Cyber Report.